I have been sent this twice today already by some right wing friends. Obviously its an article some pundit is probably swearing by. I would like to respond. Was wondering what people on DU thought about it.

I know Im not in the 1,000 post club here. But I have made enough I shouldn't have to defend myself. I simply wanted the opinions of those who are probably better at decyfering this stuff than me since I received it twice already its probably in every right wingers inbox by now.

It would be interesting to see what the numbers would look like if you included 250K - 360K.

More importantly, the author is discussing only the income tax, not the capital gains tax. For the very wealthy the capital gains tax rate is the more critical number. During regular times and especially in boom times, capital gains are a huge contributor to revenue (less so in 2008 as the stock market happened to be in free fall). They are a big reason the final Clinton years were in a surplus.

And then there is the estate tax, and the rate of tax on dividends. The author is willfully ignoring a lot by just focusing on the income tax. This is a common tactic.

Still, the reality is that hiking taxes at other income levels would help a lot in closing the gap further.

I don't know anyone who's advocating for a 100% on income above a certain level, and Paul Ryan's proposal is a half-baked wet dream of Libertarians who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Not even the Heritage Foundation believes its own estimates, which Ryan relied on heavily for his dimwit proposal (they've tried to scrub their site of the most lame-brained stuff, but that's not how the internets work).

But he's spot-on when he's talking about a subject quite near to his heart and intellect: Gullibility. I have to give him that.

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